Our Retired Teachers Chapter members in Florida worked incredibly hard on the special election on March 11 to determine who would represent Florida’s 13th congressional district. Unfortunately, our candidate, Democrat Alex Sink, suffered a narrow defeat by Republican David Jolly.

It was especially tough for our retirees, considering all the energies they put into Sink’s campaign, and I want to thank everyone for the work they did. As a first major effort for us, perhaps it was a testing ground to build on and I hope the connections our members have established on the west coast of Florida will continue.

When a close election is lost, we often second-guess ourselves on what could have been done to have pushed it a little further. There is never any easy or good answer to that. Following on our members’ successful activities in the 2012 campaign to help turn around Florida in that swing area for President Obama’s victory, they made a major effort to continue to build something there, and we must take pride in that ongoing struggle.

After the election, one of our members, retired Bronx High School District Representative Lynn Winderbaum, wrote me the following letter, which I found heartening. I’d like to share it with you.

The feelings of coming so close to turning over this congressional district to a progressive candidate and falling short are still raw. And I’m a little bummed out.

But if the reflection is to begin now, these are my thoughts. And don’t forget, we start up the fight again in August, not only for this seat but for the governor’s as well.

I can adopt the attitude that C.W. Bill Young was our representative for 40-plus years and a Democrat has not even come close to defeating him in all that time. I can adopt the attitude that this is still a Republican-dominated district and so it would have been difficult for Alex Sink to win, even with her name recognition.

But the fact is that I have the sense that this district is turning bluer and I thought the time was ripe to pull off a win.

Obama won Pinellas County in the last election, but the two large progressive-leaning neighborhoods in St. Petersburg were gerrymandered out of the 13th CD so a lot of presumably progressive votes which went to Obama were not in play.

The biggest obstacle to overcome was the outside money that poured into this campaign and defined a moderate liberal as a radical left-winger who selfishly spent state money on herself and would be a puppet of Pelosi and Obama. Sink out-raised Jolly by about four to one from local voters. But the millions that flowed in from Americans for Prosperity (Koch brothers), American Crossroads (Rove) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were formidable and negative. True, outside Democratic groups ran endless commercials defining Jolly as a lobbyist who could be bought and a threat to Social Security, but the campaign was just an ugly display that stifled the voices of the candidates themselves.

Sink had the most impressive game on the ground. Jolly had none, since activism on his behalf by locals was nil. But now I wonder if it was overkill. Pinellas is a county where most people do not vote on Election Day. I voted in February; 129,000 residents voted early and they broke plus-three for Sink. Our members, judging by our phone banks, voted early and voted for Sink with very few exceptions. So they were not in play on Election Day.

Jolly caught up with Election Day voters and passed Sink’s advantage in early voting. Why, when he had no ground operation to rival Sink’s? I think her campaign was too relentless. Aside from doing the UFT phone banks, I made phone calls for the Sink campaign and did canvassing the last two Sundays, knocking on doors.

The operation had sophisticated techniques of identifying likely Sink voters and then deluging them with phone calls and “passes” to their homes until they started to backlash in anger from all the intrusions. And these were the last voters — the ones who were generally waiting until Election Day. I can tell you, after visits on Saturday and Sunday, plus at least three phone calls in two days, they had had it!

So maybe less is more. Jolly had no ground game and his supporters came out based on their ideology or some image they formed from the TV buys. Sink’s had the ground game to get out the vote but used it as too much of a bludgeon.

If campaigns are about getting things done in Washington and helping people before business donors, Sink would be the better representative. But in the era of Citizen’s United, corporate “free speech,” and sophisticated targeting of likely voters, we have to think about new ways to be effective.

I’m sure I’ll feel better in a few days. August is not that far away.

Indeed, Lynn. We will keep up the good fight.